A Young Lady and Survivor of the Titanic Tells Her Story

Bertha Lehmann

Second-class passenger

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A seventeen-year-old traveling alone, emigrating from Switzerland, and unable to understand English, describes her experiences

It was a beautiful, warm spring day, April 8, 1912, when happy and carefree I said goodbye to my dear mother and sister, all my friends and schoolmates. My father went with me as far as Basel. I remember well when I left an old lady asked me what I would do if the boat would sink and I told her that the boat could not sink. And if it would, there would always be a piece of wood that I could hang on to. How little did I know that it would actually happen in less than a week.

The cherry and apple blossoms made the orchards look like they were covered with snow. It was Easter Monday and all the people in Bern, Switzerland, my home, were out to tell me goodbye.

I'll never forget while walking down to the depot, where I was to take the train, my father said, "Bertha, every time you come along with me I have some sort of bad luck, and I feel now like something is going to happen to you." I told him that nothing could happen to me and there would be lots of people that I could talk to because, at that time, I could speak very good French. And should anything happen to me they would find it out right away. It was hard for dad to let me go as I had a sister and brother already in Iowa. Father was taking a train to work and as his train left before mine we had to say goodbye before my train left. Tears nearly came into my eyes and as I was determined to be brave and not cry when the time came, I did not cry. Dad kissed me goodbye and said, "I suppose I will never see you again."

I left Basel about midnight and got to Paris about 6 o'clock Tuesday morning. Arriving there I went to a hotel and breakfasted. After that we went to a house where they inspected our trunks. We were not allowed to take any tobacco with us on the boat. After we had our things checked we took a train to Cherbourg, France. We arrived there about midnight, where we went to a hotel and rested until 3 o'clock the next afternoon. When I say we I don't mean that I had anybody else along with me because I was alone.

Liner Far Out to Sea

We were then taken aboard a small steamer. This was to take us to the Titanic. The Titanic was so far out on the ocean that it took us from three in the afternoon until sundown to get out there. After we got on the Titanic we could just barely make out the shore line of France.

It sure surprised me how big the Titanic really was. It was 882 feet long. Thinking back now the small boat looked like a mosquito in comparison and the Titanic like a cow. The people on it called it the "floating palace." There were faster boats then but the Titanic was built for comfort and safety and not for speed. I had been in many beautiful hotels in Europe and in America but I have never seen anything quite as beautiful as this boat. I had a cabin by myself on the right side of the boat and it was on the outside so I had a port hole. I traveled second class but it was nicer than I had expected. The stewards were extremely courteous.

They also had stewardesses on the boat so that when lady passengers got sick they could be looked after by ladies rather than men. The boat was equipped with, shall I say, a small hospital. They also had doctors and nurses.

The first two days I was sea-sick. I stayed below all the time until Saturday. I came up to lunch and found that I was to sit at a table with two little boys and their father. 1 On the other side was a young married couple. I learned to know these boys because they could speak French. Sunday their father came and asked me to stay with them while he played a game of cards. The boys' mother was still in England. They were separated and the father wanted the boys and so did the mother. The father had, in reality, kidnapped the boys and thought that he could keep them if he got them to America.

Sunday night I went to the library to write some letters to mail after I got to New York. When I had finished my letters I went below. Almost all of the people were English and as I could not speak English I did not want to stay up there and listen to something I could not understand. I had brought along lots of Swiss and French reading material so I went to read.

Like a Train Stopping

I read until I got sleepy and then I turned the light off. I went to a very light sleep and it seemed all at once that I was on a train and it was grinding to a very sudden stop. The first thing that entered into my mind was that we were in New York. I sat up first and then got out of bed and walked over to the lounge that was right under the porthole and looked out. It seemed that there were lights outside. I think now it must have been either the stars or else the reflection of the lights of the Titanic on the iceberg we had just hit.

I heard the two ladies come into their room that was next to me. Their voices sounded as though they were very excited. Although I couldn't understand a word they were saying I knew something had happened. They left their cabin and then I thought that I really should get dressed and find out the reason for stopping in the middle of the night, because I knew then that we were no longer moving. I dressed and went up on deck. I saw a French musician that I had met talking to another lady. She went away and then I asked him what was wrong. He just told me that we would have to go on another boat to get to New York and that I should go down and get my coat. 2

I went and when I came back he put a life belt on me and took me to another deck. he said to a couple of officers that here was another lady. As I was standing there waiting my turn to get in the life boat I could see and hear women crying and hanging on the arms of loved ones. There were some ladies there that did not want to go because their husbands could not go. Then came my turn.

The life boats had been lowered to the deck level. I was taken out there and then, as I stepped into the life boat, it was dark and, of course, the inside of the boat was lower than the deck, I fell. I thought for a moment that I was going to fall right into the water, but I hit the bottom of the boat. I don't remember if I was hurt or not. I guess I forgot about it in the excitement.

I was not frightened or excited at first at all. I suppose the only reason I wasn't was that I did not realize what had happened. When the boat had been partly filled I saw two men jump from the deck into the life boat and hide behind their wives' skirts. One of them was found but the other one got away.

Life Boat Is Tipped

Then the time came to let the life boat into the water. As we went down the ropes did not work right or something and one side of the boat was much lower than the other. We all had to scramble to the higher side of the boat to keep it from tipping over. After we had it sitting straight in the water there was no knife to cut the ropes. Everyone was asked if they had a knife and at last a man found one in his pocket. After the ropes were cut the men bent to their task of rowing. Incidentally, the only men allowed on the boats were the ones that had to row.

We were not very far from the boat and could still hear people crying and yelling to one another. All at once there were three loud reports, they sounded something like a very loud crash of thunder when it strikes very close to you. We all looked at the Titanic. It had broken apart! The front part of the boat went under first. The helm of the front half sank and then the middle.

The last part of the boat was still above the water. The broken part of the last half of the boat sank slowly into the water and then the stern. That was the last of the ship that could not sink. The work of many men destroyed and along with that the lives of 1,600 men, women and children. All was silent for a while and then the people that was taken under from the suction of the boat came up again. And, of course, those that had life belts on stayed up. We could hear them yelling and screaming for help. As we rowed farther and farther away the cries were lost in the distance between us and the boat.

That night was the longest one I ever put in in my life. It seemed that it would never be dawn. Some time during the night we met a capsized life boat with three men on the bottom of it. They were wet and cold. We picked them up and that made us even more crowded. We still rowed on and on. Would morning ever come?

We saw a growing light again on the horizon. It was really getting daylight. When it was almost daylight we then came upon another life boat. It had only a few men in it and as our boat was crowded, some of us stepped from our boat into the other one. Both of the boats went on again but in the course of time we drifted apart.

Sight Rescue Ship

It must have been about 7:[obscured] when we first sighted a boat, the Carpathia. No one knows how glad we were to see it. It was about 8:30 when we were finally taken on to the Carpathia.

The crew of the Carpathia put down a sort of basked in which we had to sit and be pulled, one by one, to the deck. We were taken into the dining room and given a blanket and a hot cup of coffee. The Carpathia was overloaded and somebody threw the ice out to make up for the extra weight. From Sunday night until Thursday night the ones that were rescued did not have a bed to sleep on. We had to sit up all the time and did not get a chance to take our clothing off.

On Thursday night we saw the lights of New York. Everyone was on deck. At last all was ready for us to go down the gang plank to New York. When we got off the Carpathia were taken to a hospital. We had to stay there from Thursday until Monday while everything was checked and double checked. There seemed to be no end to the questions we had to answer. At last I was able to go to Iowa.

That is my story and I can assure that I never want to experience anything like it again.